The media

Fiji’s media has often been suppressed under military rule, and tends towards the bland and parochial. When conventional media has been censored, the Internet has proven invaluable in distributing the views of Fijians, notably through blogs often written by critical emigrants living outside of Fiji.

Newspapers and magazines

Of the English-language daily newspapers, the Fiji Times (fijitimes.com), owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, is the most dominant, with the broadest international coverage. Its closest rival is the locally owned Fiji Sun (fijisun.com.fj), a slightly more tabloid-style publication.

Radio

The part-government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (fbc.com.fj) operates six radio stations, two each in Fijian, Fiji-Hindi and English; of these, one focuses on news and community issues, the other music and chat. For Fijian music try Bula FM (FM102.4 in Nadi) – all stations have varying FM frequencies depending on location. The independent Communications Fiji Limited (www.cfl.com.fj) broadcasts five mostly music stations, two Fiji-Hindi, one Fijian and the popular English music and gossip stations – FM96 and Legend FM (FM106.8).

Television

Fiji has three free-to-air television channels. Fiji One’s programming is almost exclusively in English, with only a few locally produced shows, the rest being sourced from the US, UK and New Zealand. The one-hour Fiji News is shown daily at 6pm, with mostly local content and a smattering of international headlines. Mai Television is sports orientated, and FBC TV has attempted to raise the standard of local news broadcasting.